BNFL INC history

A prototype reactor was built at Calder Hall in picturesque Wordsworth country after the war, and experimentally connected to the national electricity grid as early as 1953.

However, with the formation of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (AEA) in 1954, the peaceful civilian applications of the technology were given a new prominence.

In 1956, Queen Elizabeth formally opened the fully operational Calder Hall reactor, to an overwhelmingly positive reception in the press.

Sir Christopher's fears were dramatically realized on October 10, 1957, when the core of the number one reactor at Calder Hall, near Windscale, caught fire and burned for over a day, showering radioactive ash over the surrounding area.

Until 1971, BNFL was the Production Group of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (AEA), with which it maintains close links.

In 1983, however, an independent local television station produced a documentary about Windscale--recently renamed Sellafield--which aired nationally in November of that year.

The Black Report, which appeared in July 1984, corroborated the cancer figures that the Yorkshire television documentary had presented.

On the technological front, due to enhancements in waste management technology, the level of discharge into the Irish Sea dropped dramatically from 1985 onward, and new research attempted to eliminate the radioactive component of Irish Sea discharge completely.

In 1986, events took an international turn when the Irish Prime Minister, Doctor Garrett FitzGerald, expressed his concern that radiation leaks might also be affecting Irish citizens living directly across the sea from the Sellafield plant.

In 1990, the Washington office of BNFL Inc. opened its doors in an effort to solicit waste management business in the United States.

In February 1991, BNFL was pleased to welcome the Secretary of State for the Environment to Sellafield for the opening of its new £240 million (US$468 million) Vitrification Plant.

The expansion was the forerunner of a new complex costing £1.85 billion (US$3.61 billion) which would eventually open in 1992 under the name THORP (Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant). THORP would be capable of processing spent fuel from a variety of reactors, including AGRs and light water reactors.

Trawsfynydd nuclear power station (shut down in 1993)

In 1996 the UK's eight most advanced nuclear plants, seven Advanced Gas Cooled Reactor (AGR) and one Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR) were privatised as British Energy, raising £2.1 billion.

On 30 January 1998 Magnox Electric was merged into BNFL as BNFL Magnox Generation.

In June 2000 BNFL took a 22.5% stake in Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (Pty) Ltd in South Africa.

Bradwell nuclear power station (shut down in 2002)

Chapelcross nuclear power station (shut down in 2004)

On 19 April 2005 BNFL Inc was renamed BNG America and made a subsidiary of BNG.

In March 2006 BNFL announced its intention to sell BNG. With the sale of Westinghouse, BNG America and BNG this was to effectively bring BNFL to an end.

All UK Magnox power stations are due cease operation by the end of 2015. It was later sold in June 2007 along with its subsidiary that held the operating contracts with the NDA, Magnox Electric, to EnergySolutions.

The NNL was launched in July 2008 as a Government-owned company, and initially was managed under contract by a consortium of Serco, Battelle and the University of Manchester - this is known as a GOCO (Government-Owned, Contractor-Operated) arrangement.